It’s been 10 years since the Rudd Government pledged to put an end to asylum seekers arriving by boat, setting in motion a policy that left many lives in limbo.
A decade on and human rights groups continue to call for the permanent resettlement of those impacted, and a royal commission into Australia’s handling of offshore detention.
Story features : Ogy Simic (ASRC), Elnaz and Ella (asylum seekers). Reported by Kath Landers. News presented by Janice Petersen
Neil Para says he hopes to raise awareness of the plight of thousands of refugees who are living in the Australian community with limited or no access to working rights, Medicare or educational support.
Margaret O'Donnell from Ballarat Rural Australians for Refugees. said "The uncertainty is just no good for people's mental health. They can contribute - and are contributing - to society. They've suffered long enough."
This man plans to walk 1,000km from Ballarat to Sydney. Here's why. By Biwa Kwan, SBS News
In the strongest line a modern Labor prime minister has taken against asylum seekers, Mr Rudd said: ''As of today, asylum seekers who come here by boat without a visa will never be settled in Australia''.
This resulted in the regime of cruelty under which thousands of men, women and children suffered years in appalling conditions in detention on Nauru and Manus Island.
Ten years on, approximately 80 individuals still remain in a state of abandonment and statelessness in Papua New Guinea. These individuals, who have also been subjected to offshore detention, require immediate action to ensure their safety and well-being. Grandmothers urge the government to prioritise the evacuation of these individuals, providing them with the necessary support and care they desperately need.
UNSW psychologists have compared the long-term psychological and social consequences of changing visa status, showing that any form of temporary visa is associated with worse mental health in refugees compared to permanent secure visas.
"If I stop supporting my families back home, there's a lot of consequences to bear …”
Khin Nyein Thit was jailed in 1995 for participating in a peaceful demonstration, spending seven years in prison, and also helped organise protests during the Saffron Revolution in 2007. After the military overthrew the elected National League for Democracy government in February 2021, she immediately went into hiding, and fled to Thailand with her family in September that year.
She’s one of over a thousand refugees who have been approved for resettlement in either the US or Australia, but haven’t gotten permission to leave, possibly because Thailand fears encouraging a fresh influx of refugees. With exit permits seemingly stalled indefinitely, sources say resettlement approvals have also dried up.
Myanmar refugees granted resettlement in third countries are stuck in Thailand. Frontier Myanmar
Despite Kuol's busy schedule, he and eight other NBL players found time during the off-season to give back to Canberra's basketball community, which Kuol said had given him so much.
The sound of bouncing basketballs echoing across the court filled with children's laughter was a sign of the success of Kuol's community basketball clinic.
"I'm a people person, we have a huge community here, huge Sudanese community, basketball community," Kuol said.
While both Donald Trump Junior and Novak Djokovic were granted visas to enter Australia, the stark difference in how the two cases were managed highlight the difference in approaches of the Albanese and Morrison Governments to controversial visitors.
Donald Trump Junior vs Novak Djokovic: A tale of two visas. By Abul Rizvi, Pearls and Irritations
Ten years on, thousands of people are still in limbo, having endured years of trauma in offshore detention in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, and ongoing uncertainty as they are denied permanent resettlement in Australia. Even though refugees were removed from Nauru in June, they continue to live with the uncertainty of not having permanent residence and a settled future.
July Letter Writing Kit from Australian Refugee Action Network
The Commonwealth Ombudsman also noted in 2018 that Home Affairs has relied on paper records for historical citizenship information, which contributed to unlawful detention cases.
Bradley said the fact that unlawful detention was ongoing demonstrated Home Affairs had not sufficiently invested in technology and management systems, which he said was symptomatic of a departmental culture that did not prioritise the wellbeing of detainees.
“It’s a department that became progressively more adversarial in outlook and approach to the people who fall under its control,” he said.
The size of Australia’s Refugee and Humanitarian Program is usually announced as part of the federal budget each year but despite coming to power with a commitment to almost double it over time, the Labor government is yet to come up with a number for the 2023-24 financial year.
This interactive map documents hotels known to be used for immigration detention across Australia, creating the first coast-to-coast visualisation of a practice that has operated largely in the shadows for two decades.
Australia first introduced Alternative Places of Detention (APODs) 20 years ago. Since then, hotels – including both major chains and independent operators – have been used as places of detention, including for people who have sought asylum. Yet, there is no publicly available list of APODs in current or previous use.
Tensions came to a head this week when Rutte demanded support for a proposal to limit the entrance of children of war refugees who are already in the Netherlands and to make families wait at least two years before they can be united.
This latest proposal went too far for the small Christian Union and liberal D66, causing a stalemate.
Dutch government collapses over immigration policy. SMH by Bart H. Meijer and Anthony Deutsch
[My finding of the legality of the decision] should not, however, be understood as my approving the immigration detention the applicant was required to endure," he said in his decision.
"I can only wonder at the lack of thought, indeed the lack of care and humanity in detaining a person with psychiatric and psychological problems in a hotel for 14 months.
Lacking 'human decency' but legal, judge rules in refugee hotel detention case, SBS By Biwa Kwan
The Federal Court has ruled that a refugee held in immigration detention in Melbourne hotels was not detained unlawfully. Mostafa 'Moz' Azimitabar was held in immigration detention in two Melbourne hotels for 15 months... before being released in January 2021.
Federal Court rules indefinite hotel detention legal. By Ryma Tchier, ABC News
Detainees at Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre escaped from a burning building by jumping out of windows on Thursday morning, with 18 people treated for smoke inhalation.
I brought proceedings against the Australian government to challenge the legality of hotel detention. If I win this case, it will have significant ramifications and not just for other people who have been held in hotel detention.
The language Ezidi is not recognised by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI), which trains and accredits translators in more than 180 languages.
The ABC has spoken to several members of Armidale's Ezidi community, who all said an absence of interpreters trained specifically in their language made visits to the hospital or local GP a highly stressful experience.
Much of the debate around stopping the boats and even locking children up in detention centres has been around what is in the "best interests" of kids and their families. Dr Jordana Silverstein argues this approach has resonances with settler-colonial attitudes to Indigenous people and to any who come to our shores seeking succour from non-white countries.
Guest: Dr Jordana Silverstein, Senior Research Fellow at the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness at the University of Melbourne.
Despite quietly shifting away from offshore processing, Australia recently signed a A$422m contract with a US prison company to oversee Nauru until at least 2025.
"The enduring capability ensures regional processing arrangements remain ready to receive and process any new unauthorised maritime arrivals, future-proofing Australia's response to maritime people smuggling," a spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs said.
Nauru: Why Australia is funding an empty detention centre. By Hannah Ritchie, BBC News Sydney
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